SCHMIDT, ANTON MARIA. – Swiss politician and general of the Canton of Uri, born 9 November 1792, died in 1880.
After participating in 1823, with the rank of captain, in the Spanish campaign in the French ranks, he was «Landmann» and «Landeshauptmann» of Uri from 1824 to 1838, assuming during the Sonderbund War command of a brigade of the Catholic cantons. He then entered the service of the Holy See and in 1855 became colonel of the first foreign regiment. Thus, he had the opportunity to distinguish himself by routing, on 21 June 1859, the innovators who Perugia (v.).
The following year, during the Piedmontese invasion of the Papal States, he was at the head of the first brigade with the rank of general. His delay between 10 and 13 September in suppressing, in the vicinity of Città della Pieve, the operations of columns of volunteers coming from Tuscany kept him unaware of the outbreak of hostilities with the royal troops and of the march on Perugia by the army corps of General Fanti, preventing him from rejoining the bulk of the Papal forces, La Moricière (v.) was already concentrating along the Spoleto-Poligno-Ancona axis. Returning swiftly to Perugia on the morning of the 14th, he found it already surrounded by a large force of regular Piedmontese troops and managed only with difficulty, after fierce street fighting, to withdraw into the Rocca Paolina. The resistance there offered by S. to Fanti with deliberate firmness, despite the crushing disproportion in weapons and men, throughout the day, had the not inconsiderable effect of enabling De La Moricière’s rearguards to cross the Apennines without hindrance, by forced marches. Transferred as a prisoner to Piedmont, S. subsequently returned to Switzerland with a passport issued to him by Cavour.